Process of treating hydrocarbons



March 10, 1925.

C. W. THOMPSON ET AL PROCESS F TREATING HYDROCARBONS Filed Sept. 29. 1921 Patented Mar. 10, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CAREY W. THOIPSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND HENRY C. BEELER, OF DENVER,` COLORADO. Y

PROCESS OF TREATING HYDROCARBONS.

Application led September 29, 1821. Serial No. 504,247.

' To all 'whom t many concern:

Be it known that we, CAREY W. THoMrsoN and HENRY C. BEELER, citizens of the United States, and residents of New York city, New York, andl Denver, Colorado, respectlvely, have invented certain new and .useful Improvements in lProcesses 'of Treatmg l-.lydrocarbons, of which the following 1s a specification.

Our present invention relates to an 1mproved method of treatment of hydrocarbon oil or vapors to increase the saturation of the resulting oils, and the inventlon lncludes the novel process hereinafter more fully described and particularly defined by the appended claim.

' [n the following description we explain our invention by reference to the accompan ing drawin in which T e figure 1s a longitudlnal section through the converter.

Referring by reference characters to this drawing the numeral l designates a suitable hopper designed to contain a pulverulent or granular carbon containingmaterial such as spent shale, (or oil bearin shale from which the oil has been driven off which we have found an excellent material for our purpose, though other carbon containing material may be used, or a material such as sand, gravel or other inert material may be used to start as it soon accumulates carbon. This material acts to distribute the heat evenly through the oil together with the stirring acton of the screw as hereinafter described, preventing rthe incrustation of carbon on the shell of' the still or converter. This hopper delivers the material through connection 1a to aconverter chamber2which is in the form of a series of'stills joined together and set horizontally or on a suitable incline as may be desired for treatment of different hydrocarbon bodies, as for example, in case of vapors the horizontal form would be best, while with oils a slight incline would be preferable.v These combined stills or converters can be constructed of any diameter or length, about 3 feet diameter 'byl 40 feet long would be a practical design.

Within this works a conveyor screw 3 driven continuously by any sultable means so that there is a progressive feed of the ma.

terial from the hopper to the discharge 2 which communicates with seal conveyor 4 lfrom .which the material maybe continuousl v removed by elevator 5 to Ibin 6, or may be returned to hopperI 1 for reuse.

The converter chamber is enclosed in a heat cham-ber 7 as shown,y which may be supplied with heating products or gases through pipe or conduit 8 from any suitable source, (not shown). On the upper side of the converter 2 are the vapor chambers 9, 1() and 11, which are representative of any desired number, the converter chamber above the screw being open at these points to allow free escape of the vapors generated into the vapor chambers from the substance treated.

'Ihe chamber 9 is connected by a pipe 9a with any desired apparatus such as a superheater o1' condenser (none of which is shown), wh1le the chambers 10 and 11 communicate by ports or passages 10, 10b and 11n with a common chamber 13 which extends back to and communicates with a chamber 13u near the initial end of the conveyor which chamber 13a is in communication with the interior of the cylinder.

The initial end of chamber 13 may be provided with an outlet as by pipe 13". Spent shale or other carbon bearing material or gravel is supplied to the initial end of the convert/er from the hopper l as above described and hydrocarbon vapors or crude oil to. be treated is supplied from any suitable source (not shown) through pipe 141;.l

The portion of the converter to which the shale or gravel and oil or vapors are su plied constitutes a cold chamber, and 1f vapors are supplied through pipe 14 they condense on the cold material used, or crude oil dwhen treated mixes with the material use The material with the oil or condensed vapor is moved by the conveyor screw progressively towards the discharge end, and hence into successively hotter zones.. In entering the zone of chamber 9 the first or lightest vapors are driven off in said chamber and thence through pipe 9a to any desired apparatus as stated, the temperature at this point being, for example 500 F. On

reaching the zone of the rst half of chamthrough passage 10b. The lfinal or hottest zone, say 900 F., is reached in chamber 11, when the remaining oil is vap'orized and passed through passage 11a into the end of chamber 13 from which they may be withdrawn if desired for special treatment through pipe 13". ,i

The vapors risin into chamber 13 from the several vapor c ambers travel towards the initial end whence the lighter vapors pass by way of pipe 13J to the superheater or condenser f system as desired, 'while the heavier vapors condense in the cold chamber 13a and drop on the carbonaceous or gravel or like material and are again passed through the converter.v

We have found that if superheated steam or fixed gas is introduced into the vaporization chambers this facilitates vaporization It will be understood that the vapors treated and saturated according to our process may be subsequently fractionated in any desired manner. v

s Having thus described v our what we claim is:

, invention,

A process of converting hydrocarbons,

fractions from the kbody of the mixturev undergoing distillation'at successive zones of increasing temperature, commingling saidl vapors within the vapor space of the retort and returning the fraction condensed within the region of the vaportake-off in the vapor space to the gravel before said gravelreaches the zone of heat treatment.

In testimony whereof, we aix our signatures. CAREY W. THOMPSON.

HENRY C. BEELER. 

